Mail-bag deliverer and receiver



R. PITTMAN.

MAIL BAG DELIVERER AND RECEIVER. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 24, 1919.

1,3 1,179, J Patented Dec. 7,1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1- v I 5140mm x H P7725774;

R. PITTMAN. MAIL BAG DELIVERER AND RECEIVER.

APPLICATION FILED NOV 24, 1919.

Patented Dec. 7, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UNITED STATES RAY PI'ITMAN, 0F BODE, IOWA.

MAIL-BAG DELIVEREB AND RECEIVER.

Application fi1ed November 24, 1919.

T0 aillwhom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BAY PITTMAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bode, in the county of Humboldt and State of Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mail-Bag Receivers, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to devices for delivering a mail bag from a rapidly mov ng train, and to means for receiving or catching the mail bag, and the general ob ect of the invention is to provide a mechanism of this character so constructed that the mail bag may be supported on a moving train in such position that the mail bag may be readily taken off the mail bag support as it passes a station without regard to the rapidity at which the train is moving.

And a further object is to provide a construction of this character which will hold the bag firmly in permit the bag to be removed with little possible shock or jar.

A further object is to provide a device of this character includingtwo arms. between which the mail bag is disposed, and provide clamps for engaging the rings on the ends of the mail bag, and provide means for urging the arms apart so as to stretch the mail bag said means, however, permitting the arms to move toward each other as the mail bag is being pulled off the clamp.

And another object in this connection is to provide clamps which will swing in the direction of movement of the train to permlt the ready removal of the bag.

A further object is to provide means which will hold the bag off the ground after the bag is caught, thus preventing from being dropped upon the ground or into ditches at the side of the road and the con tents of the mail bag damaged.

Other objects will appear in thecourse of the following description. 1

My invention is illustrated inthe accompanying drawings, wherein':'-

Figure exchanging apparatus constructed in' ac-' cordancewithfmy invention;

Fig. 2'isa top plan view of the construction shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view of the portion ofa' car door casingshowing the Specification of Letters Patent.

Deliverers and position, but which will.

1 is a side elevation of a mail bag Patented Dec. 7, 1920.

Serial No. 340,275.

means for extending or projecting the mail ba holder;

*ig. 4: is a fragmentary perspective view of the joint between the levers 20 and 22;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of one of the cli s 16.

eferring to these drawings, it will be seen that my device comprises an upper and a lower arm 10 which are hinged to the wall of the car by means of hinges 11 for movement in a horizontal plane. These arms are slightly resilient and are downwardly bowed at their middles and upwardly bowed adj acent their extremities, and then extend horizontally at the extremities. Extending through the inwardly bowed portions of the arms is a bolt 12 having nuts 13 at their extremities, and between the nuts and the arms are disposed the springs 1 1, which act to urge the arms toward each other. The extremities of the arms are bifurcated and disposed in the the inner ends or shanks of a pair of spring clamps, designated 15. These clamps are outwardly bowed at the middle of the clamp and then normally flare outward. Normally holding these clamps closed are clips 16 approximately U-shaped in form, and which are slipped over the ends of the clamps, as illustrated clearly in Fig. 1. These clamps are pivotally connected to the extremities of the arms by means of bolts 17 which permit the clamps to rotate. The extremities of the arms may be arcuate in form, as illustrated in Fig. 2, and provided with a plurality of perforations 18 for the passage of a limiting bolt 19 which will hold the corresponding pairs of clamps from all except a limited swinging movement. The purpose of this construction will be later described.

Pivoted to the upper arm 10 is a trip lever 20 whose lower end is'formed with a loop or eye 21 and pivoted to the lower arm 10 adjacent its extremity is a trip lever 22. This trip lever 22 isformed adj acent'its end witha deflectedportion23 forming a shoulder which engages with the loop or eye 21 When these trip levers are so dispo'sed,'the arms 10 are held spread apart against the action of the springs 14;. When, however, the, loop '2 1 is dislodgQ l from the shoulder 23 or the levers. turned; inward, then the, springs '14 will urge the arms toward each other. 'The outer ends of these trip levers arerespectively, connected to the clevises 16 bifurcation of each arm are by means of chains 24. Now a on the upper end of a mail bag A is 'disposed between the lower pair of clamps 15, and the trip levers 20 and 22 are engaged with each other, the arms will be held apart and the mail bag will be stretched between the arms. The catcher, which will be hereafter described, engages the trip levers when the ring 20 and 22, forcing them toward the mail bag in Fig. 1 and thereby withdrawing the clevises 16. This will also tend to draw the ends of the mail bag toward each other, and the rings a will be drawn out through the clamps. lVhen the catcher strikes these members 20 and 22, they will separate from each other to permit the passage of the catcher, and this also permits the arms to move nearer to each other to accommodate the folding up of the mail bag as it is caught. At the time that the mail bag is caught by the catcher, the spring clips 12 will swing on their pivots 17 in the direction in which the train is going, thus permitting the ready detachment of the mail bag from the arm supporting it. Guards 20 and 22 are provided to prevent the catcher arm from catching on the olf-set ends of the levers.

As before stated, the arms 10 are hinged to the side wall of the car, and for the purpose of normally holding the arms 10 parallel to the side of the car or forcing these arms 10 out into angular relation to the side of the car, I provide manually operable means for shifting the arms comprising a U shaped yoke 25 having legs passing through. eyes 26 on the door casing. The extremities of these legs are angularly bent, as at 26, andengaged with eyes formed on the arms. A spring 28 bears at one end against a bolt 29, to which the eyes 26 are attached, this bolt being square in cross section for the greater portion of its length and having its ends formed with trunnions so that the bolt is rotatably mounted in the door casing.

The spring 28, it will be seen, normally acts to draw the arms inward, but by pushing on the end of the yoke, the arms may be forced outward to any desired position.

y removing the pin 19 from the ends of the arms, the clamps 15 may be swung inward on their pivots 17 so as to carry the clamps into position through the door of the car to permit the fastening of a mail bag thereon. When these pins 19 are in place, however, they prevent these clamps from swinging inward accidentally.

The means whereby the mail bag is removed from the support on the car is illustrated in Fig. 1. This means comprises a vertical post 30 having extending from it the horizontally disposed arm 31 whose extremity is slightly curved. Angularly disposed braces 32 extend from the post 30 to the arm 31. These braces are disposed in the shock. Attached to the post 30 are a pair of spring clamps 36 which are outwardly bowed and at their extremities are outwardly turned. The arm 31 is disposed at an angle to the track with its extremity in the path of movement of a bag. Now when the bag strikes the arm 31, it will beremoved from its engagement with the clamps .15, as before described, and the forward movement of the bag as it is carried forward while being detached tends to shift the bag up the arm 20 and into engagement with the clamps. Thus, the bag is caught and held. Of course, the resilient braces may be used to sustain this receiving device against the force of the impact of the bag, permitting the receiving device to yield slightly.

lVhile I have illustrated my mail bag holding device as mounted upon the car and the arm 20 as being mounted upon the ground at the side of the road, I wish it understood that the arm 20 might be mount ed upon. the car and the mail bag holding device mounted upon a post or other without departing from the spirit of the invention.

I claim 7 1. A mail bag supporting device compris-v ing upper and lower arms hingedly support ed for movement in a horizontal plane, said arms being movable toward or from each other, resilient means urging the arms toward each other, ing said arms spread apart, mail bag ringengaging devices pivotally mounted upon the extremities of the arms, and means con nected thereto for tripping said spacing means as the rings engaging means.

2. A mail bag support comprising upper members pivoted upon the arms for move.

ment'in a horizontal plane, means for holding said arms spaced apart against the we tion of the springs comprising levers, each pivoted upon one of said arms, one ofthe levers having a shoulder with which the other lever engages, clips mounted upon the extremities of the ring-engaging members and removable therefrom with the removal of the ring, connections between said clips and the spacing devices whereby upon the removal of the mail bag the spacing de vices will be disconnected from each other to permit the arms to move toward each other. I 3. A mail bagsupperting device comprising upper and 'lower hin-gedly supported support shiftable means for hold-V are drawn off the ring! arms, means holding these arms toward each other, upper and lower pairs of ring-engaging clamps, each pivotally mounted upon the extremity of an arm for movement in a horizontal plane, means for holding said arms in spaced relation comprising tripping levers pivoted to the arms, one of said levers having a shoulder and the other having a loop engaging the shoulder, clips engaging over said clamps and holding them closed, and connections from said clips to the spac ing levers whereby upon the disengagement of the clips, the spacing levers will be shifted to disengage the spacing levers to permit the arms to move toward each other.

A mail bag supporting device comprising upper and lower arms hingedly supported for movement in a horizontal plane, the middle portions of said arms being bowed toward. each other, a bolt passing through the middle portions of the arms, springs on said bolt urging the arms toward each other but permitting the arms to move away from each other, upper and lower pairs of spring clam as pivotally mounted upon the extremities oi the arms for movement in a horizontal plane, spacing levers mounted upon the extremities of the arms and extending respectively above and below the arms, one or the spacing levers being provided with an eye and the other with a shoulder adapted to be engaged with said eye when the arms are in a vertical position, clips adapted to be disposed over the extremities of the spring clamps but removable by the removal of a mail bag from the clamps, and connections between said clips and said levers to cause the shifting of the levers out of alining relation to thereby permitthe arms to move toward each other.

5. A mail bag support comprising a pair of hinged arms having means on the extremities of the arms for engaging the upper and lower ends of a mail bag, and means "for forcing said arms outward comprising a U-shaped member having legs pivoted to the arms, a rotatable, vertically disposed memher having eyes through which the legs of the ti-shaped member pass, and a spring bearing against said vertical member and the extremity of the U-shaped member and urging the U-shaped member in a direction carry the arms inward.

The combination with a car and mail bag supporting arms hingedly mounted upon the car and having means at their ex- .and lower mail tremities for engaging the upper and lower rings of a mail bag to support the mail bag in a projected position, of means for removing the mail bag from said arms compris ing an upright having an outwardly projecting arm disposed at an acute angle to the path of movement of the car and extending inward toward the path of movement of the car so as to intersect the path of movement of the extremities of the arms, diagonally disposed braces engaging said outwardly extending member, and mail bag engaging resilient clamps mounted upon said braces and having outwardly turned extremities.

7. A mail bag supporting device comprising upper and lower arms hingedly supported for movement in a horizontal plane and for movement toward or from eachother, shift-able means for holding said arms spread apart and comprising levers each pivoted upon one of said arms, one of the levers having a shoulder with which the other lever engages when the levers are in line with each other, said levers being adapted to be struck by the mail bag catcher to disengage the levers and permit the arms to move toward each other, upper and lower mail bag ring engaging members pivoted upon the extremities of the arms for movement in a horizontal plane, clips detachably engaging the extremities of the ring engaging members and connected to said levers,

whereby when said tripping members are struck by the mail bag catcher they will release the clips from the extremities of the ring engaging members and permit theremoval of the mail bag.

8. A mail bag support comprising upper and lower hingedly supported arms movable vertically toward or "from each other, upper bag ring engaging members'pivotally mounted upon the arms for movement in a horizontal plane, clips mounted upon the extremities of the ring engaging members and movable therefrom, and tripping members mounted upon the arms operatively connected to the clips, sai tripping members normally holding sai arms apart but being adapted to be struck by a catcher and shifted from engagement with each other to thereby detach the clips and permit the arms to move toward each other.

In testimony whereof I hereunto afiix my signature.

RAY PITTMAN. 

